A small gas turbine engine is described in UK patent application no. 9800782.6 filed Jan. 15, 1998 and in a corresponding International patent application no. PCT/GB99/00074 filed Jan. 8, 1999, now abandoned. This gas turbine engine comprises a centrifugal compressor, a diffuser, a heat exchanger, combustion apparatus, and at least one turbine. The compressor has variable inlet guide vanes, the diffuser has variable outlet guide vanes and the at least one turbine has variable inlet guide vanes so that the flow capacity of each component is independently variable while maintaining the temperature, pressure ratio and speed of rotation of the gas turbine engine substantially constant.
A combustion chamber is required for this gas turbine engine which produces low emissions of the oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbons (UHC) throughout the entire power range of the gas turbine engine, but especially at low powers.
The fundamental way to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) is to reduce the combustion reaction temperature, and this requires premixing of the fuel and most of the combustion air before combustion occurs. The oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are commonly reduced by a method which uses two stages of fuel injection. Our UK patent no GB1489339 discloses two stages of fuel injection. Our International patent application no. WO92/07221 discloses two and three stages of fuel injection. In staged combustion, all the stages of combustion seek to provide lean combustion and hence the low combustion temperatures required to minimise NOx. The term lean combustion means combustion of fuel in air where the fuel to air ratio is low, i.e. less than the stoichiometric ratio. In order to achieve the required low emissions of NOx and CO it is essential to mix the fuel and air uniformly.
The industrial gas turbine engine disclosed in our International patent application no. WO92/07221 uses a plurality of tubular combustion chambers, whose axes are arranged in generally radial directions. The inlets of the tubular combustion chambers are at their radially outer ends, and transition ducts connect the outlets of the tubular combustion chambers with a row of nozzle guide vanes to discharge the hot gases axially into the turbine sections of the gas turbine engine. Each of the tubular combustion chambers has two coaxial radial flow swirlers which supply a mixture of fuel and air into a primary combustion zone. An annular secondary fuel and air mixing duct surrounds the primary combustion zone and supplies a mixture of fuel and air into a secondary combustion zone. An annular tertiary fuel and air mixing duct surrounds the secondary combustion zone and supplies a mixture of fuel and air into a tertiary combustion zone.